Groups, Graphs, and Symmetry-Breaking

Abstract

A labeling of a graph G is said to be r-distinguishing if no automorphism of G preserves all of the vertex labels. The smallest such number r for which there is an r-distinguishing labeling on G is called the distinguishing number of G. The distinguishing set of a group Gamma, D(Gamma), is the set of distinguishing numbers of graphs G in which Aut(G) = Gamma. It is shown that D(Gamma) is non-empty for any finite group Gamma. In particular, D(D_n) is found where D_n is the dihedral group with 2n elements. From there, the generalized Petersen graphs, GP(n,k), are defined and the automorphism groups and distinguishing numbers of such graphs are given.